Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Today's make for Rubber Dance is just a quick one but it has a short story behind it. A while ago I made an altered book (below) for Unruly Paperarts and as it was quite a complex project I ended up with quite a few elements which were spares or rejects along the way.

Sometimes when I finish a larger project I challenge myself to use up what's left on my desk to create another item - I can't bring myself to throw these bits away but if I don't use them while they are still to hand the chances are I won't use them at all. This tag is the outcome of one such challenge.

The background on my tag is made from the pieces I cut out of the book to make the niche, simply collaged into place. The main leftover element is the Da Vinci image - I'd originally stamped her on vellum and coloured the reverse with markers but in the end I decided on a paper version for my book, leaving the vellum one spare to adorn my tag.

Sunday, 15 March 2015

This is a make for the Rubber Dance Colour Challenge for March - theme is spring. The colour is scheme is not really me but I decided if I made green the focal colour it could work for a springtime journal page.

Rubber Dance Challenge colour scheme

My background is created with Brushos - if you haven't tried these they are great fun to play with. They are powder pigments and very inexpensive so the investment needed to try them is minimal. The results are largely unpredictable which frees up the process a little - you have little choice but to go with the flow! For this background I shook small quantities of the Brushos onto a background, adding water spray and more Brusho powder until happy with the look. I left the piece to dry naturally as I liked the way the colours had settled and didn't want to move them around too much with the heat gun.

The page is finished with plenty of stamping, firstly in complementary colours onto the background and then with Watering Can Archival Ink and white embossing around the edges. The quote that finishes the page is from Rubber Dance's Da Vinci set.

I'll definiately be playing with Brushos again. Thanks for stopping by and good luck if you play along with us at the Rubber Dance challenge!

Sunday, 1 March 2015

Quickie make today for the Stampotique Bring Me Sunshine challenge. It's a hanging canvas stamped with background images and then coloured with PanPastels. The sunrays (Tim Holtz) are stamped with orange Archival and watercoloured over with Inktense pencils.

I used Big Bee from Stampotique as my focal and also used Abstract Foliage around the edge. My bee has sparkly vellum wings.

The background circles are Rubber Dance and the honeycomb is by IndigoBlu. My piece is finished with wire and Big Chat stickers.

Challenge time again at Rubber Dance and I've gone floral again - the colour scheme definitely said flowers to me. Actually, I have to confess I am not totally happy with this card as the colour scheme this time is really not me - but it's supposed to be a challenge and I wasn't going to chicken out!

See what I mean??? Soooooooo not brown...

You can find all the Challenge deets on the RD Blog - awesome RD stamps to be won as always (PS we are quite a small challenge at the moment so more chance of winning! And you don't have to use RD products to be able to play along).

My background is created with PanPastels - I am very new to these and still exploring but I think I will come to love them. They blend really beautifully. For the flowers and bird, more practice with the Inktense pencils; one of the best things I ever added to my stash - they really are very forgiving for a rank amateur too!!!